Basin Electric GM/CEO 'optimistic' about the co-op's future

The General Manager and CEO of Basin Electric Power Cooperative is optimistic about the co-op’s future.

Paul Sukut spoke to the Basin annual meeting in Bismarck. His comments come after a year when Basin had to cut 21 percent of its work force. The co-op had some problems with a new urea fertilizer facility at the Dakota Gasification Plant. But he told the membership that situation has turned around.

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The general manager of Basin Electric Power Cooperative said coal is facing continued challenges in the marketplace.

Paul Sukut said the challenge is coal’s competitiveness – by other sources, such as wind and natural gas.

"Our members made an investment 30 years ago in those coal plants," Sukut said in an interview with Prairie Public. "They still have debt, and they do have economic life. So we're challenges to try and tease as much economic life as we can out of them."

Sukut said in some cases, it may mean temporarily taking coal plants off-line.

Facing competition from renewables and cheap natural gas, coal-fired power plants are learning they must adjust to survive.

For decades, many coal plants burned coal as fast as their facilities could handle.

"The best way they operate is you turn them on, you run them up as high as you can, and you let them run for days," said Dale Niezwaag, vice president of government relations for Basin Electric Power Cooperative.

The general manager of Bismarck-based Basin Electric Power Cooperative says fiscal year 2016 has been a challenging year.

Basin is a generation and transmission cooperative, providing power to member co-ops in a multi-state region.

Paul Sukut said it began with the the co-op looking at the ramifications from the “clean power plan" – which would affect Basin’s coal-fired generation. Then, the Great Plains Synfuels Plant – which produces synthetic natural gas and other byproducts – saw prices for its products fall. And the winter was warm.